Star Trek: Can Alex O'Loughlin make his latest big TV role stick? (It took George Clooney quite a while, too)
by Ed Bark on June 27th 2010 at 11:31 pm
An earlier Alex O'Loughlin/CBS image
Alex O'Loughlin's recent TV flops are readily apparent this summer.
CBS is burning off remaining new episodes of his Three Rivers medical drama on Saturday nights. It premiered last fall but didn't make it to a second season.
Meanwhile, The CW has been airing reruns of O'Loughlin's short-lived 2007 CBS series Moonlight. His portrayal of a blood-sucking detective meshes nicely with CW's The Vampire Diaries, which is filling out the network's hot weather Thursday night lineup.
Vampire Diaries will return for a second season this fall. So will O'Loughlin, as the star of CBS' new version of Hawaii Five-O. He'll be playing detective Steve McGarrett, the role made famous by the late Jack Lord.
That will be three CBS series in four years for O'Loughlin, making it easy to joke about whether he has compromising pictures of the network's programming executives under lock and key somewhere.
So what does CBS see in the 33-year-old Australian? Star potential obviously. And as the likes of George Clooney, Tom Selleck, Don Johnson, Alec Baldwin and Nathan Fillion can testify, it only takes one show to put you over the top. When that happens, all previous failures are pretty much beside the point.
Take Clooney, for instance. He owes his current mega-stardom to NBC's ER, which first dawned in 1994 with Clooney as hunky Dr. Doug Ross. Before that, though, he had kicked around in recurring supporting roles on The Facts of Life, Roseanne and Sisters.
Clooney also co-starred in several TV series that never made it beyond a first season. He played an intern named Ace in the CBS sitcom E/R. He was undercover cop Chic Chesbro in Sunset Beat, which lasted all of two episodes. Clooney also toiled in the failed TV series version of the hit movie Baby Talk. The subsequent Bodies of Evidence didn't work either, with Clooney playing another detective, this one named Ryan Walker.
Selleck made six failed TV pilots, including the action cop drama Bunco with Donna Mills and the late Robert Urich, before finally finding the perfect role for him as the star of Magnum, P.I. Thirty TV seasons since Magnum's premiere, he'll return to CBS this fall as the star of the new series Blue Bloods.
Johnson at last became a huge TV star in 1984, courtesy of Miami Vice. Before then he had traipsed through a wide variety of guest shots in TV series and mostly supporting roles in small-screen movies. His biggest splash, the lead role in 1981's Elvis and the Beauty Queen, failed to ignite his career. It would be three more years before he finally got to the promised land as Sonny Crockett in Vice.
Baldwin cut his prime-time TV teeth in the since forgotten 1983 doctor series Cutter to Houston. He then segued to a supporting role on Knots Landing and has worked regularly in feature films and TV ever since. But Baldwin's signature, Emmy-winning role didn't come until 2006, when his Jack Donaghy began stealing scenes on 30 Rock.
Fillion is our latest late bloomer, He's finally found an ideal spot as the co-star of the growingly popular Castle. A string of short-lived series preceded the ABC whodunit, including starring roles for Fillion in Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place, Firefly, Miss Match and Drive.
All of this should be heartening news for O'Loughlin, who in reality is still just a kid when it comes to false starts in the TV biz. That said, he'll probably have to make a gainful go of it in Hawaii Five-O. Either that or maybe hit the beach for a while.
O'Loughlin is very likeable and certainly deserves a good show. Moonlight was OK (I stuck with it through the whole series) but I think the real star of that show that deserves his own show is Jason Dohring.
I look forward to the Hawaii 5-0.
I really think that Hawaii-5-0 will be a major hit. It has all the ingredients and the trailer looks really good. Three Rivers suffered from the phone book syndrome, too many characters, not enough plot and development to care about them. Moonlight was a great show in its one season. As for Jason Dohring, I second the comment that he deserves his own show, too.
Alex O'Loughlin was the best thing about Three Rivers, but the concept was kind of boring and had the phone-book problem: too many characters and sub-plots, not enough substance and character development. Moonlight was killed by the writers strike, Alex was the one person who tried to keep it from falling apart behind the scenes. It was a great show. Now with Hawaii 5-0 I have no doubt it will be a hit, it has all the ingredients for a great show and a really interesting ensemble cast.
Loved Moonlight so so much . Hated Three Rivers. Only watched 2 episodes. I wish Alex luck with Hawaii 5o, but I won't watch it. Remakes of old shows are not my thing. The Originals are always better , that is why remakes always fail .I don't follow actors but good shows with good stories. Agree, Jason deserves a show, a good one, hope not another remake.
Alex was the best thing about The Shield....subject closed.
Moonlight had a strong fan following and it was BEFORE the Vampire trend caught fire (excuse that expression). Alex was the heart and SOUL of Mick St John. Too bad the production crew was in self-destruct mode.
Three Rivers tried to hard to be too many things to too many people, he gave it the old college try and earned himself the Man of the Year for DONATE LIFE AMERICA. Agin the production/writing crew was all over the place.....in a sad world it hurt to watch people die every week so others could live.
I am not thrilled with the McGarrett Role, yet I am 199% enthralled with Alex O'Loughlin as a person, a personality and a sex symbol.
I love Alex!!!! Moonlight is my all time fav show and I was devastated when I found out it wasn't getting picked up for a 2nd season. Three Rivers was also a really good show and after watching each ep I am left wondering why the hell this show was axed as well! Hawaii Five-O looks incredible and I hope it is given a decent time slot and decent chance to make it. Although I will keep following Alex in whatever he does.
P.S Bodies of Evidence( George Clooney) was an awesome show too which should have been given more of a chance - It was similar to UNSUB which I loved as well. It makes you wonder who makes the decisions to axe them because it certainly isn't the public watching them or the fans.
I am a huge fan of the extremely talented Alex O'Loughlin. He is a very versatile actor who can portray any role brilliantly. I believe talented Alex, his cast, creative producers, writers and director will make Hawaii Five-O a very successful new crime drama on CBS for the 2010-2011 season.